knowledge of what is really great in art, and any desire for its advancement in England, to come fearlessly forward, regardless of such individual interests as are likely to be injured by the knowledge of what is good and right, to declare and demonstrate, wherever they exist, the essence and the authority of the Beautiful and the True. Whatever may seem invidious or partial in the execution of my task is dependent not so much on the tenor of the work, as on its incompleteness. I have not entered into systematic criticism of all the painters of the present day; but I have illustrated each particular excellence and truth of art by the works in which it exists in the highest degree, resting satisfied that if it be once rightly felt and enjoyed in these, it will be discovered and appreciated wherever it exists in others. And although I have never suppressed any conviction of the superiority of one artist over another, which I believed to be grounded on truth, and necessary to the understanding of truth, I have been cautious never to undermine positive rank, while I disputed relative rank. My uniform desire and aim have been, not that the present favorite should be admired less, but that the neglected master should be admired more. And I know that an increased perception and sense of truth and beauty, though it may interfere with our estimate of the comparative rank of painters, will invariably tend to increase our admiration of all who are really great; and he who now places Stanfield and Callcott above Turner, will admire Stanfield and Callcott more than he does now, when he has learned to place Turner far above them both. In three instances only have I spoken in direct depreciation of the works of living artists, and these are all cases in which the reputation is so firm and extended, as to suffer little injury from the opinion of an individual, and where the blame has been warranted and deserved by the desecration of the highest powers. Of the old masters I have spoken with far greater freedom; but let it be remembered that only a portion of the work is now presented to the public, and it must not be supposed, because in that particular portion, and with reference to particular excellencies, I have spoken in constant depreciation, that I have no feeling of other excellencies of which cognizance can only be taken in future parts of the work. Let me not be understood to mean more than I have said, nor be made responsible for con desions when I masters did not dence, to infer sion, not min Whatever I Garored to gro sand or fall by writer is no mer Works in our ow of bictures at R geak at once w freedom, as eries. Whateve tration, have be to works in the Finally, I ha Faich I could h reflection and S of such rev sented to the pu and is more pe called for instan intention, will ent volume is spirit, or a desi could hope to contrary, its re shrink from no Bowever feebly. England, and t We now neglect Death, and exal neither demand I have only stated facts. I have said that the old. ot give the truth of Nature; if the reader chooses, er that they were not masters at all, it is his connine. I have asserted throughout the work, I have enground altogether on demonstrations which must by their own strength, and which ought to involve ence to authority or character than a demonstration Tet it is proper for the public to know, that the here theorist, but has been devoted from his youth us study of practical art. has been generally affirmed of the old schools of nting is founded on familiar acquaintance with int work of art, from Antwerp to Naples. But it less, where close and immediate comparison with own Academy is desirable, to refer to the details Rome or Munich; and it would be impossible to with just feeling, as regarded the possessor, and as regarded the public, of pictures in private galtever particular references have been made for illusbeen therefore confined, as far as was in my power, he National and Dulwich Galleries. I have to apologize for the imperfection of a work d have wished not to have executed, but with years. and revisal. It is owing to my sense of the neces revisal, that only a portion of the work is now prepublic; but that portion is both complete in itself, peculiarly directed against the crying evil which stant remedy. Whether I ever completely fulfil my ill partly depend upon the spirit in which the presis received. If it be attributed to an invidious esire for the advancement of individual interests, I to effect little good by farther effort. If, on the real feeling and intention be understood, I shall no labor in the execution of a task which may tend, ly, to the advancement of the cause of real art in d to the honor of those great living Masters whom ect or malign, to pour our flattery into the ear of xalt, with vain acclamation, the names of those who and our praise, nor regard our gratitude. THE AUTHOR. i ACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. wed by the most able writers on naval and military although the attack by successive divisions absores in the attacking party such an inherent superility of force, and such consciousness of that superiy enable his front columns, or his leading ships, to mselves for a considerable period against overwhelms; it yet insures, if maintained with constancy, the uin of the opposing force. Convinced of the truth, re assured of the ultimate prevalence and victory of les which I have advocated, and equally confident ength of the cause must give weight to the strokes of akest of its defenders, I permitted myself to yield to hasty and hot-headed desire of being, at whatever thick of the fire, and began the contest with a part, e weakest and least considerable part, of the forces osal. And I now find the volume thus boldly laid public in a position much resembling that of the eign at Trafalgar, receiving, unsupported, the broadIf the enemy's fleet, while unforeseen circumstances to prevented, and must yet for a time prevent, my ps of the line from taking any part in the action. I e first moments of the struggle with some anxiety for vessel,―an anxiety which I have now ceased to feel, ag of truth waves brightly through the smoke of the my antagonists, wholly intent on the destruction of ship, have lost their position, and exposed themfenceless disorder to the attack of the fellowing col ever, I have had no reason to regret my hasty adir as regards the ultimate issue of the struggle, I have it to occasion much misconception of the character, and some diminution of the influence, of the present essay. For though the work has been received as only in sanguine moments I had ventured to hope, though I have had the pleasure of knowing that in many instances its principles have carried with them a strength of conviction amounting to a demonstration of their truth, and that, even where it has had no other influence, it has excited interest, suggested inquiry, and prompted to a just and frank comparison of Art with Nature; yet this effect would have been greater still, had not the work been supposed, as it seems to have been by many readers, a completed treatise, containing a systematized statement of the whole of my views on the subject of modern art. Considered as such, it surprises me that the book should have received the slightest attention. For what respect could be due to a writer who pretended to criticise and classify the works of the great painters of landscape, without developing, or even alluding to, one single principle of the beautiful or sublime? So far from being a completed essay, it is little more than the introduction to the mass of evidence and illustration which I have yet to bring forward; it treats of nothing but the initiatory steps of art, states nothing but the elementary rules of criticism, touches only on merits attainable by accuracy of eye and fidelity of hand, and leaves for future consideration every one of the eclectic qualities of pictures, all of good that is prompted by feeling, and of great that is guided by judgment; and its function and scope should the less have been mistaken, because I have not only most carefully arranged the subject in its commencement, but have given frequent references throughout to the essays by which it is intended to be succeeded, in which I shall endeavor to point out the signification and the value of those phenomena of external nature which I have been hitherto compelled to describe without reference either to their inherent beauty, or to the lessons which may be derived from them. Yet, to prevent such misconception in future, I may perhaps be excused for occupying the reader's time with a fuller statement of the feelings with which the work was undertaken, of its general plan, and of the conclusions and positions which I hope to be able finally to deduce and maintain. Nothing, perhaps, bears on the face of it more appearance of folly, ignorance, and impertinence, than any attempt to diminish the honor of those to whom the assent of many generations s assigned a thron Last without exce and power wh ility to take the htened by the h Then the lustre of n heads, in the ra ions and incomp entent if, like the themselves notice b themselves by viru aw of the vicious. nally shown in t Sad, it is worthy resently escape ving-whether th Tery same incompe rent greatness, f exerted and assed the critic w at. Be it rem tected only when here it effects th that there is as mu be concealed by throned in heaven visible. There is, I fea that they are chie greatest pleasure, can no longer be the sepulchre, be the senseless nigrardly of the advances to fortu corp erosity and humi of praise, and the homage to a livi ard of imaginar ng on the inferi have been, to wi |